Wow, Ellen even had this random observer fooled.

I do have to say, I wonder how the humans can win with New Caprica. It just seems really, really difficult. Especially since having the Admiral being a Cylon easily becomes an instant loss. (And has been pointed out, at least two characters have the ability to steal the title.)

BSG

I do have to say, I wonder how the humans can win with New Caprica. It just seems really, really difficult. Especially since having the Admiral being a Cylon easily becomes an instant loss. (And has been pointed out, at least two characters have the ability to steal the title.)

As it happens, I have records of 46 New Caprica games played on boardgamegeek. The humans have won 22 of them, almost half - and slightly more frequently than they win base games. I'll have some comments to add once everyone's had a chance to chime in.

BSG

The humans have won 22 of them....

Hmm. If I were to bet, I'd say those would be where they were able to clear out the Raiders and Basestars fast once Galactica got back, since after that the evacuated ships are pretty much safe.(Except for Broadcast Location) They'd also need to have a buffer of Population to absorb the loss of ships to Occupation Forces while they were concentrating on the Cylon ships - the whole "no human pilots" thing was a big factor, since we got to New Caprica low on Pop.

It'd be interesting to see how many Cylon wins were because of the Win The Game Button effect.

BSG

Woes! We even sprung you from the sickroom!

And you XOed me like A MILLION TIMES. So trusting, you guys. Even when I was in Comms. Man, if I had ever seen one of those 2 Pop ships, I may have thought it was worth it to move it into Raiders, but instead I saved everything, even the decoy. ESPECIALLY the decoy, so you would have to waste time prepping it on New Caprica. Looks like it was at the bottom of the stack, though, so not much of an issue. And it seemed like you were skirting Raider activations so much that even if I had ever used a Comms XO to move a civvie into danger, it was never a sure thing that it would be destroyed; there was always a way to save it in time, especially because RSVs were there.

And Tory was like an IC MACHINE, so I rarely even had an opportunity to spike checks. And when it became clear that you all seriously, honestly believed that no one else was a Cylon, I never dared to spike a check. Sure was fun to make you overplay the hell out of some checks, though.

Let's just say, mistakes were made, but our doom was probably written in the stars regardless.

I think the game did most of the work, but I like to think that -10 Pop would have been a win in almost any scenario.

I can finally high-five Boomer openly!

Nice job on By Your Command, although I was so afraid that Civvie B would end up being 2 Pop and we would win before I even got to pull my trick.

Wow, Ellen even had this random observer fooled.

Hee! You should have seen all the e-mails between billytea and me. I was basically whining for half the game about how I was being a TERRIBLE CYLON.

BSG (Tory)

I know I was a lot less helpful than I could have been. I wasn't sure how to handle New Caprica and I completely forgot that I had a very helpful Quorum card.

But yeah even without my incompetence, Ellen had the power to screw us at any moment.

Very very fun game. I got the giggles every time we gave Ellen "the thing".

BSG

I was basically whining for half the game about how I was being a TERRIBLE CYLON.

I was feeling the same way about myself most of the game, particularly after I flubbed a chance to use my OPG. Until we hit New Caprica, I felt like the only thing going our way was the humans blowing the early-jump die rolls both times.

BSG

That definitely helped. For some time, I was worried that Population might be too high for the trick to work, but then it was pretty clear that as long as they didn't suspect me, we would pull it off with no problem. And of course one of those early jumps was one I facilitated in the hopes that they would lose Pop. We probably could have afforded to stay for at least one more jump icon both those times.

Also, if Destiny had done a little better on that last check, they would have lost on Morale too. I was hoping for Morale to go low enough that the executions could win the game if Pop didn't. Which is why I volunteered to get off NC so that everyone else could stay down there. Which is why I volunteered to go to Med Center so I'd have to be XOed.

I know I was a lot less helpful than I could have been.

Do you know how many times I cursed your name for playing ICs all the time? I hoarded them with gleeeeeeee. Hell, when Gaeta played one too, I feared you guys would remember that I draw Yellow too and how likely was it that I didn't have one? I played one once to look helpful, but I think I held on after that because, godsdammit, like 90% of the damn checks were investigated, and it wasn't as much fun. Especially because Destiny kept helping Team Human.

I also hoarded DEs, but there was never even a time when we needed one, so that wasn't too effective.

I kept discarding Treachery intentionally in hopes that Boomer would Sabotage. When someone came in and was like, "Why don't you throw your Treachery into a tanked check?" I was like SHUT UP YOU.

I'm also surprised that no one cottoned on to the fact that before Sleeper, I was Adroitly giving everyone good cards. After Sleeper, I gave shitty cards or no cards. Obviously only the recipients knew what I was giving, but I know Adama should have been suspicious that the first time I gave him an IC, and then later I gave him a CP. Of course, the first time was a Cylon test to see if he'd play it. But, definitely, I thought it was super suspicious that my post-Sleeper Adroit behavior was completely different than pre-Sleeper, where I went out of my way to use the ability.

Also, you guys seemed to have forgotten that I had been assigned Chief of Staff, and there were a couple checks where I really should have made Yellow positive for us. Not that it really mattered because ICs made every check absurdly easy.

I had some pretty amazing hands, and I tried to play as low as I could without being too suspicious, but it soon became a balancing act since I was frequently over my hand limit, so I had to make sure I wasn't forced to discard high cards or ICs, which is why every now and then I helped a whole lot to get my hand down. I could have helped more pretty much always, though. We never seemed to have a problem with cards, though, so, again, that technique wasn't very effective.

Oh! There was that one time where we really wanted to use nukes but it was my turn and I remember thinking it would be a good time to use my OPG but obviously I wasn't going to suggest it. In fact, I never brought up my OPG at all because I thought you guys would figure out what I was up to.

BSG

Especially because Destiny kept helping Team Human.

Oh, gods. Between that and Tory spitting out a never ending stream of ICs, I don't think I ever successfully spiked a check? I Revealed with 2 six-ers and a five-er and I still think they passed every check!

I kept discarding Treachery intentionally in hopes that Boomer would Sabotage.

Which I happily did, the ONE TIME I got a Sabotage.

And yeah, if they hit New Caprica with Pop close to full, the Win The Game Button may not work. We got lucky on those die rolls.

BSG

I've just finished a game on bgg playing Ellen. She's a good character, quite versatile. I spent most of the game passing XOs to Boomer.

I'm also surprised that no one cottoned on to the fact that before Sleeper, I was Adroitly giving everyone good cards. After Sleeper, I gave shitty cards or no cards.

Honestly, from what I've seen, it was handing off the IC that was unusual. Why wouldn't you keep the good cards? Then you know they're not falling into the wrong hands.

What you can do too is pass off cards for their effect. For instance, Ellen usually won't get much chance to use a Major Victory, so she could pass that to the Admiral. (Or pass XOs to characters who don't draw much Green.) Now, if you start throwing Treachery around, that might get attention.

What did everyone think of New Caprica?

As promised, here are some observations about how the New Caprica module changes the game. For all that it occupies only the last quarter or so of the game, New Caprica changes pretty much everything, because it changes how the humans win. Here are some observations:

• On New Caprica, the Admiral is king. A Cylon Admiral can jump early when the humans would lose, or refuse to jump when they would win. I have seen many games where the crew decided to execute a trusted Admiral (or Ellen, if she still has her OPG) "just in case". With Exodus loyalty rules, though, this isn't the safeguard it used to be (though it will still work pretty well on Ellen or Gaeta, since their replacement will have a different OPG).

• On that note, it's a lot cheaper to execute people on New Caprica - it's just a 7 GPT check.

• The game ends in a final space battle. It may be a good idea to keep something in the tank for it. If you can't evacuate enough ships to win within a turn or three, you'll likely have to stand and fight.

• The key to a New Caprica game is Population. However, avoiding Population loss is less important than the

Assume for a moment that all civvies just contained 1 Population. Say you arrived on NC with 12 Population, and 12 civvies. How many do you need to evacuate before the last jump? Just one. You can leave all the rest behind and you'll still have 1 Population and the win. Now say you had only 3 Population and 3 civvies. How many do you need to evacuate now? Still just one. You can escape New Caprica just as quickly in this situation as if you still had your full contingent.

But what if you arrived with 3 Population, but still had all 12 civvies? How many do you need to evacuate now? You can only afford to lose two ships; that means you'll have to evacuate 10 ships before you can order the last jump. 10 ships, facing crises and Cylon attack all the while.

What this means is that losing civvies before you reach New Caprica isn't such a big deal. As long as you don't lose everything (still a risk - best not to get complacent), it just reduces the number of ships wanting to be evacuated at game end. On the other hand, lose too much Population to other causes (early jumps, crisis cards, 'miscellaneous'), and you guarantee a long, hard fight on New Caprica, while you evacuate ship after ship to try to make up the shortfall.

• In answer to the question of how the humans can win with New Caprica, then, the short answer is: protect your Population from any losses except civilian losses. If you can do that, you can be ready to jump within just a turn or two of Galactica's return. That way, the final space battle isn't such a threat, and there's less time for a Cylon to play havoc with the Admiralty. They worst they can pull may be to delay takeoff - troublesome, but not necessarily fatal.